ESO welcome a new year with celebration of Dvorak

ESO welcome a new year with celebration of Dvorak

The English Symphony Orchestra will begin 2019 with a celebration of the music of Antonin Dvořák in Malvern Theatres featuring today’s leading Czech violinist, Pavel Šporcl, in a performance of the Dvořák Violin Concerto, a work he has recorded to international acclaim with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Czech Philharmonic. The concert also includes Dvořák’s melodious and moving Eighth Symphony and a selection of his vivacious Slavonic Dances under the baton of the ESO’s Artistic Director, Kenneth Woods.

Šporcl brings a lifetime of experience to the Dvořák Violin Concerto, a work written for Joseph Joachim and described by ESO Artistic Director Kenneth Woods as “one of the most perfect and beautiful of all Romantic violin concerti.”

Hailed as an artist with a human touch, Šporcl likes to go beyond the classical music scene and collaborates with many non-classical music artists. His projects Gipsy Way (2008) and Gipsy Fire (2014) with gipsy cimbalom band has been received with great enthusiasm in many countries including China, and was seen in almost 300 concerts by more than 120,000 people. “We’re very excited to be working with Pavel,” says Woods. “He’s passionate about making his music available to everyone, and that is why he is one of the most popular artists in Europe today.”

The second half of the concert will be given over to Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony, a work particularly close to Woods’ heart. “Dvořák 8 was the first score I bought as a young musician curious about the role of the conductor and the art of the composer,” says Woods. “It’s one of those pieces which has been with me at every step of my musical life as student and professional, cellist and conductor.”

The ESO’s next concert, on the 16th of February, will be a concert performance of Act I of Wagner’s Die Walküre on 16 February in Worcester’s Swan Theatre

The ESO with Pavel Sporcl will be at Malvern Theatres on Saturday, January 26 at 7.45pm, with a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm. To book, call the box office on 01684 892277 or visit malvern-theatres.co.uk

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